Veldin was charming this time of year the same dusty sort of landscape that Ratchet was abandoned as a child; Lombax instincts enabling him to survive his formative years. The bright sun baking the orange landscape (even this early) as Ratchet and Clank trek across the sun-dried rock, having parked Aphelion a few metres away to stroll a bit while Talwyn stayed in the ship to escape the heat. The Lombax holds a rather vacant expression on his face as they walk, his tail swaying lightly from side to side, surprisingly keeping stride with his smaller robotic friend.
Clank was looking towards his friend, he had been through so much with him, this planet being where it all started and he can figure out when Ratchet is troubled. "Is something the matter, Ratchet?" he asks out of concern.
One of Ratchet's large striped ears twitches and he looks to his friend, "You know," he starts, looking ahead, "even though we've been gone all this time, and I never found my real home, this home hasn't really changed much since we left." His green eyes share the same colour as house Slytherin, providing an odd, but nice balance against his orange and yellow Siamese pointed fur with auburn stripes on his ears, his tail sharing the same stripes but being slightly fainter.
Clank hops over a small rock as he keeps pace with the larger steps of the Lombax. "After you stopped the Deplanestiser, interstellar traffic to Veldin slowed to nearly zero percent. It has not recovered since," he says; he was right for there was hardly any ships coming to port onto the desert planet, that was mostly used for ship repair.
The duo begin to pass a warehouse as Ratchet starts to talk again, "Can't say I'm not disappointed, but at the same time it's nice and quiet. Just how I li-" "Pst! Kid, turn around," a voice interrupts Ratchet from behind, both Lombax and Robot turning around with confused expressions, cautiously walking towards where the voice came from.
"Do I recognise that voice?" Clank questions as they stop, peeking in to see a pair of eyes peeking out of a crate. It's Slim Cognito and he wants to talk.
"Listen, I know this is on short notice, but someone is moving in on my territory, and I don't like the look of 'em. No simple criminal outfit uses such a hefty collection of assets and is that serious about what they're doing," he expands without being prompted, seeming to trust these two greatly to make them privy to such information.
Ratchet raises a brow, his head bare from a stuffy helmet. "So you want us to help you?" he questions, tail flicking slightly.
They sense Slim nodding, "You two are perfectly capable gentlemen, I'd trust no one else." The weight behind his words holds true, for he had met them quite early on in their career.
Ratchet nods slowly, his face held in mild confusion as he works out what Slim is asking. He starts his sentence slowly, "...Again, you want us to do police work for you?"
"Absolutely."
Both furry brows are raised now in a questioning manner, "For you, a criminal?" he inquires further.
Clank jumps in, scolding Ratchet, "He has furnished us plenty of assistance in the past, Ratchet. We need to help him!"
Ratchet makes a drawn out audible thinking noise, "Euuuuuaaaahh….Alright," he relents, agreeing (really he had no choice since Clank was right).
That answer pleases Slim greatly, "Good, good. Just tell me where you are in the next month or two, and I'll hook you up with some… tools that may be useful."
Ratchet and Clank both take the time to peer into the warehouse and past the box Slim is hiding in, a number of stacked crates groan and moan past the open door, occasionally shaking. Ratchet's large ears sway lightly as the Lombax turns his head to face Slim, "Wh-why are you here anyway? This is the last place I thought I'd find you."
"I'll just say I've been rather...busy since you've been gone; No one ever comes here," a thought seems to come to the hidden man, "well, except my most valued customers." He looks at them as he directs his classy tone at them knowingly.
This earns an eye roll from Ratchet, but the Lombax couldn't deny that it was true (judging by the at least six R.Y. in the boot of Aphelion).
"We will be in contact soon, Mr Cognito," Clank says, waiting for Ratchet to depart. The Lombax nods at his friend, signalling that they'll leave soon but he has one last thing to say, "As long as you're paying us, and I know you can, I've got no problem with it." He cracks a small smile.
"Of course, I am an honest businessman as always." He sends them off with that and they walk out of the warehouse, heading back to Aphelion to park the Lombax ship fully at Ratchet's hangar to prepare for the trip ahead. They walk back across the desert that's now blistering hot as the sun rose to it's near full apex in the sky, the atmosphere a dusty tan with light blue barely peeking through. Some of the flowers on the cacti having closed to shield themselves from the harsh sun, other prickly plants dot the desert floor with a muted green, curling out to catch the harsh sun instead of shying away from it. Ratchet doges these ones, knowing full well how painful their spines are, having gotten one straight through his shoe once from accidentally stepping on it (he thought that wouldn't happen).
They make it to Aphelion, dust already beginning to settle on the titanium plates muting her blue paint. Her pulse generators making the ship hover several centimetres off the ground, kicking up loose dirt onto Aphelion herself and pushing it further out, including into Ratchet's fur as he approached. Ratchet jumps up onto the nose of the ship, bouncing down then up to compensate for his weight and the additional weight in her small cargo bay normally called 'the boot' (since it's underneath Ratchet's boots). The canopy opening up to allow Ratchet and Clank to jump in, they land effortlessly on the seats, Ratchet sitting next to Talwyn as the canopy closes and Aphelion wakes up, greeting them, "Ratchet, Clank, where to?" the feminine Lombax made AI asks.
"Just several metres ahead, need to unload the stuff from the hold into my house," Ratchet says, the ship humming to life. As acknowledgement she simply glides across the desert floor instead of lifting off fully, not needing to for the short drive; parking herself in the warehouse, and teleporting the stuff from her hold to the ground nearby. She opens her canopy to let her drivers and companions out, opening up her actual landing gear (used mostly for resting) and lessening the power through her pulse drives, touching down gently.
Talwyn looks around, amazed that this is where her boyfriend lived up until he was seventeen when he first started this galaxy saving career. She wanders through the hangar while Ratchet and Clank start to organise the boxes a bit before putting things away.
Ratchet begins to put some things away, namely the guns he bought from Gadgetron, Megacorp and Grummelnet. He was also picking up to have some sense of order on his life so far. While putting the guns and gadgets away, he checks to make sure that the safety is on (not really wanting a Nitro-Launcher going off while he sleeps). Talwyn soon walks over to come help.
"So, Ratchet," Clank starts, also helping pick up the cargo, moving it haphazardly out of the way; knowing that they won't be home often enough for it to warrant a full organisation. "Where will we start looking for Slim's mysterious deadly rival?" he asks, watching Ratchet hoist several sets of armour towards dummies.
Talwyn decided to finish with the rest of the guns when she heard Clank's question, turning her head over her shoulder to Ratchet. "What job did you somehow manage to pick up while on a walk?" she asks with a hint of amusement behind her voice, not mad at Slim being mentioned for she knew who he was.
Ratchet fixes her with a sheepish grin while affixing the Duraplate Steel armour onto a dummy. "Someone is moving in onto Slim's territory and he wants the two of us to check it out," he answers, strapping the last of the armour on before moving to the Adamantium armour set.
Talwyn checks the safety on the Tempest while she puts it away, brushing her hands on her pants. "May I come along?" she asks; she doesn't know what they're getting into, but she feels that they could use some extra help.
"Sure," Ratchet says, Clank nodding his agreement. "We're going to the Black Markets to have a look around for whomever is butting in," Ratchet finishes saying, stubbing his toe on a particularly heavy armour set, cursing lightly under his breath.
After making sure that Ratchet was okay, Clank responds, "The Black Markets sound like a good place to start, and, because we frequent there from time to time somebody may be willing to help us."
Talwyn knows they mostly get their illegal weapons, weapon and ship upgrades through the Black Market. Despite them being illegal, the weapons – namely the R.Y. – proved to be very useful in saving the universe. So she had no reason (despite being a captain of a police force) to try to arrest her boyfriend for it.
"So we will be departing, then?" Aphelion asks, having been listening to their conversation.
Ratchet looks around, not seeing anything that he needs to go walking in the Black Markets. "Yeah, nothing we need here," he confirms, walking towards Aphelion.
Talwyn stops him, "Not going to to take armour?" she asks, secretly hoping he says no since he's only in pants, gloves, harness for Clank and his hat; his yellow chest completely bare and she's enjoying it immensely. She herself was wearing a shirt, pants, boots and her trademark bandanna over her brown hair.
Ratchet shakes his head, jumping into the cockpit as Aphelion opens the canopy. "We're not looking for a fight," he says, helping Clank up. Talwyn soon joins them, after placing her holstered gun down on a table, knowing that both her and Ratchet could take people out in a fist fight if they needed to.
Aphelion turns on her pulse generators as the canopy closes, backing out of the hangar she turns, then blasts off towards the atmosphere to break through it and carry them to their next destination.
They were coasting in the Shadow Sector, Ratchet was driving since he knew where to go, looking carefully around when Talwyn notices something, crying out, "There! Is that it?" and pointing to something through the windshield. The Black Markets, a haven for anything illegal really, even some things Ratchet sees as wrong (you can't agree with everything).
The Black Markets was a black space station, camouflaging effortlessly with space without needing fancy cloakers, nope, a simple can of black paint will do. Talwyn was amazed at how large it was when they got closer, the station accepting Ratchet's hails without a second thought. He does seem to frequent this outpost moderately often outside of Slim. They are guided to an empty lot to park Aphelion, the ship lowering herself down then opening her canopy for her passengers.
After they got out – and after Clank jumps on Ratchet's back – Ratchet leads Talwyn into the main market area, a cacophony of sounds, sights and smells great Talwyn as she's led through the paths, taking care to doge the people (and checking her wallet after every pass as well. She's a bit paranoid). The Black Markets were just like a normal market, if that market sold highly illegal stuff that would give you a lifetime of commitment. Soon Ratchet slows, clearly signalling that they're nearby where they need to be.
Talwyn looks to him and sees a look of confusion on his face, looking towards where he's gazing, she gasps. "Primitive weaponry!" she says, shocked. The weapons were bows, arrows, axes, swords and various other weapons and gadgets that clearly came from a primitive world compared to their own.
"I knew this was bad, Slim doesn't lie, and he doesn't ask for my help much. It's also why I agreed to you coming, Tal," Ratchet says to Talwyn as he walks towards the booth, his girlfriend hot on his tail (not literally).
The figure manning the booth looks at them, almost like he was waiting for them to approach. "Finally decided you wanted something, eh?" he says, his voice harsh and clipped as he speaks to them.
It doesn't seem to phase Ratchet as he nods. "Yes, could I get a crate with one of each?" he asks, knowing what cards to play effortlessly. Talwyn held her tongue, the question on it can wait until they're in the safety of Aphelion.
The trio wait patiently as the guy fills a crate with one of everything available. Once he was done he slides the crate forward, saying his price, "Fifty thousand bolts."
Ratchet pays him that much wordlessly, wanting to get out of here, he grabs one end of the crate while Talwyn grabs the other end, she begins to walk backwards, Ratchet pointing his back towards the booth, Clank looks to the top of it. "Lyrebird," he states accidentally out loud.
"What was that, Clank?" Ratchet asks his friend, the people around them respectfully parting, understanding a good buy.
"That booth, Lyrebird, seems these are the new guys moving in," he expands with a chuckle, Ratchet shaking his head a bit in amusement as they continue walking along.
Soon they reach Aphelion, the ship immediately teleporting the medium sized crate into her hold as she opens the canopy, Ratchet and Talwyn wasting no time in getting in. Once they were seated, Talwyn finally asks Ratchet the question she was holding, "Buying for evidence?"
Ratchet nods, saying, "Yep, we're taking these to some old friends of mine, we need to let them know."
"They would also help us narrow down where we need to go," Clank adds as Aphelion takes off from the lot and leaving the station.
"Where are we going?" comes Aphelion's question as they coast while she waits. It's Clank that answers, "Marcadia." Jotting the co-ordinates into her own computer she jets off towards the planet, understanding that she needs to do so in moderate haste.
They had dropped by a little unannounced to the surprise of the President, but after Ratchet dragging the crate up the stairs and briefing him on what's going on, the President soon managed to summon his daughter and Al to a small conference room with Ratchet, Clank and Talwyn. Qwark was unfortunately (thankfully, actually) away and couldn't attend, neither could Skid or Helga. Ratchet also had to quickly introduce Talwyn as his girlfriend before they continued.
"What the, what the hell are these?" Al begins, picking up a dagger before continuing, "they're so primitive." The crate was on the table and mostly unpacked, Ratchet and Talwyn having taken care of doing so carefully.
"Exactly," Clank starts as Ratchet gently takes the blade from Al so he wouldn't cut himself, the Lombax holding it, waiting for Clank to continue. "Absolutely undetectable by most modern means," he finishes, Ratchet slipping the blade into its sheath then into his glove, Talwyn uses an x-ray scanner then a metal detector, both showing negative signs. Ratchet removes the dagger, setting it back on the table, Al grabbing it again to examine it.
Sasha had a worried expression on her face watching this, "So the perfect weapon for an assassin?" she asks, already knowing the answer.
Talwyn nods, saying, "Yes, although, they're made of metal, how does the metal detector not go off?" she muses, looking at the scanner.
"Because they're coated in a kind of substance that hides them," Al informs them, having grabbed more of the weapons (carefully) to study them. Almost every single one of these weapons have this coating.
Clank speaks up before someone else does, "I think it may be to hide them from when they are in transport. This Lyrebird also seems to sell them as exotic goods."
"Yeah," Ratchet starts, "based on the price I had to pay for a crate on one of everything," he comments drily.
"How much did they charge?" Sasha asks, looking at one of the arrows inquisitively.
"50k bolts," Talwyn and Ratchet answer simultaneously, earning sympathetic winces from mainly Sasha. Clank and Al too busy looking at the weapons; Soon the other three join in, all collectively agreeing wordlessly to figure out where the weapons are from, Al getting up briefly to get his computer.
Ten minutes of discussion and research later they find three primitive planets in the galaxy with weapons matching, much to the annoyance of everyone around the table. Ratchet letting out an audible groan when he heard the news, having taken to cuddling with Talwyn a bit while everyone else cross referenced. Talwyn herself also let out a small groan; this situation was getting bigger by the minute.
"More narrowing, uuughhhhh, this is going to take ages," Ratchet groans again, his head tilted onto the back of the chair, eyes to the ceiling, right arm loosely around Talwyn's shoulders.
Clank holds a hand up to his chin in thought. "Hmmmm….What if we were to find out Lyrebird's smuggling paths?" he suggests, clearly hinting that if they find the paths, they could find the main planet that Lyrebird is exploiting.
"Smuggling paths?" Sasha questions, wishing Clank to continue she asks another question, "how will we find that out?"
Clank chuckles, "We know a guy, but we need to leave to go meet him," he says, looking to Ratchet and Talwyn expectantly, they nod untangling themselves and getting up from their chairs.
Sasha nods for them to depart, saying, "Come back with anything you happen to find out, we'll clean up a bit so Qwark doesn't hurt himself." She begins to do just that, picking up some of the arrows that fell on the floor.
After chuckling a bit, Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank leave the room, walking down the corridor taking a few turns and finding themselves outside without being stopped. In order not to jinx it, they quickly scramble into Aphelion, asking her to take them to Veldin, promptly.
They reach Veldin in record time, landing next to Racthet's hanger they depart from Aphelion and Ratchet and Clank begin to make their way to the warehouse Slim is hiding in. Talwyn is tagging along, deciding to brave the heat because she expressed interest in meeting him. Ratchet leads her to the warehouse, peeking in to see Slim still hiding in his box. Clank is the one that signals for Talwyn to wait outside for a bit until he's aware of her pressence.
"Hey Slim, we found something about these guys called 'Lyrebird' and we think they might be the ones responsible for pushing you out. Know their smuggle routes?" Ratchet asks, getting one thing out of the way first.
"Hmmm, the name does sound familiar. I can get them for you, but, there's something else you have, isn't there?" he asks, noticing Clank hanging by the door. Of course, he wasn't hostile in asking the question, he was just curious.
Talwyn peeks her head in, waving as Clank introduces her, "This is Talwyn Apogee, Ratchet's girlfriend." He then gives a small laugh.
"Woohoo hoooo, Ratchet, where'd you pick her up?" Slim compliments in an odd way, clearly praising the Lombax; Ratchet being very glad he has fur to hide his blush, Talwyn wasn't as lucky, a slight blush arising on her cheeks.
Clank was the one to speak up to break the ice, addressing Slim, "How long will it take for you to find the routes?" he asked as Ratchet and Talwyn recover.
Slim appears to think. "How much have you gathered?" he questions, needing to know what they uncovered.
Talwyn beats the boys to it, saying, "We discovered three planets that Lyrebird might possibly be getting the primitive weapons from; Terra-1, Terra-2 and Terra-3, three M class planets with developing civilisations," She informs aptly.
"Oooh, straight to the point, I like her. With that knowledge in mind, it'll take me three hours," Slim says, having done the calculations in his head already.
"Three hours?" Talwyn questions, then decides to expand, "You don't know where their base is." Confusion having seeped into her words as she tries to figure out how you can find routes to an organisation that has been largely silent.
"That comes with the triangulation," he says dismissively, Ratchet walking towards Talwyn to guide her back out to let Slim work so that they could get their information at the end of the three hours as he mentioned. They make their way back to Ratchet's hangar to chill for a bit before having to go back to Slim, walking back in they occupy some comfy chairs, Talwyn occupying Ratchet's lap as he switches on the TV.
He stops on Channel 64, the news channel clearly catching his eye as they watch a female Cazar get arrested, this Cazar was much like Sasha except more athletically built and looked strangely calm as she was being put in the car. The reporter speaks, "Six months ago Veronica Buttress was arrested on several accounts of smuggling and assassination attempts involving stilettos." The recording was obviously older, the trio noted, looking at the date and waiting for the reporter to continue. Talwyn wondering how you would kill someone with high heels.
"However," the reporter starts, everyone holding onto the edge of their seats, Ratchet keeping his girlfriend's purple tail from smacking his face as the reporter continues, "just three weeks ago Veronica escaped her cell, both her guards dead and has not been seen since, civilians are cautioned that if they see the rogue Cazar, they are to contact the authorities immediately and to evacuate the area. Darla Gretch, Channel 64 news." The rest of the news Talwyn, Ratchet and Clank tune out, beginning to talk about what they just heard.
"I'm a bit impressed she can kill someone in and with high heels," Talwyn remarks, that having been on her mind, looking at her own boots by sticking her leg in the air.
Ratchet lets out a slight grunt in amusement, "Yeah, but she sounds and looks dangerous, just that recording from six months ago I could feel she's planning something." Talwyn looks to him, asking, "You don't think she's related to Lyrebird do you?"
"Hard to say, when Slim snags us back we can ask him when they started to move in," Ratchet says with a shrug before hugging Talwyn.
"I looked into the report on the guards," Clank starts, drawing the couple's attention to him, their wordless gaze beckoning him to continue, "they were stabbed swiftly in the heart with a thin blade right through the sternum, after appearing to have been knocked out first." He finishes his report after reading up on it.
Ratchet and Talwyn share a grimace, collectively thinking that it won't be a good thing if she's related to Lyrebird in some way. In order to distract himself from that, Ratchet signals for the game controls after switching the channel from Annihilation Nation, not having fun memories about that place. Clank passes Talwyn and Ratchet a control each while he also grabs one, slotting in a multiplayer game to kill their boredom until they have to meet up with Slim.
They had played for two hours, then all three got bored; Clank moving to read up on news reports (specifically around Veronica) while Talwyn and Ratchet decided to take a one hour nap on the recliner and are still asleep, tails occasionally twitching.
An alarm on Clank goes off, its insistent beeping stirring Ratchet and Talwyn out of their nap as they look to Clank groggily and confused. "It is time to go back to Slim, he should be done now, we can ask about when Lyrebird started to become active as well," the Robot reminds, the Lombax and Markazian untangling themselves and climbing out of the recliner still groggy, beginning to right themselves, yawning. Pretty soon they're out the door, the cold blast of heat straight to the nose woke them up quite quickly and they make their way across the desert to the warehouse.
When they entered the warehouse they find a vid-console on a crate in front of Slim, the hidden man watching them come in. "Got your routes for ya, and a location," he says, aiming for them to look at the file themselves rather than him saying it. Ratchet and Talwyn read the small vid-console themselves as Clank walks up closer to the crate asking, "About when did Lyrebird move in, Mr Cognito?"
Slim thinks, "Hmmmm, well they made themselves known about six months ago and were gradually moving in, though it was one week ago that they started to be pain in my ass," he informs.
The three of them share the kind of glance one makes with their friends when they think they found something that's helpful to them. They then share a questioning shrug while Talwyn and Ratchet continue to skim through the reports before handing them to Clank to put away; Slim watching this, raising a hidden brow, asking, "What did you three find out?"
"Veronica Buttress was arrested six months ago, about when Lyrebird started to rise, but broke out of jail three weeks ago. One week ago Lyrebird started to push you aside," Clank expands, filling in just enough for the dealer to pick up on.
"So you think she's their leader?" Slim asks, at their nod they feel him shake his own head, "unfortunately that may be false, Veronica, well I've met her and she's not someone you want to cross paths with. On any circumstance I should say. Creepy lady, I mean you did see the recording, calm even when going to jail. She won't mess with Lyrebird, they're too insignificant for her to bother with on any level," he finishes wrapping up, hoping that he's actually right and that Veronica and Lyrebird aren't connected.
Ratchet nods anyway saying, "Thanks for your help Slim, we'll contact you when we find out more on Lyrebird and Veronica if she's connected." They begin to depart, Aphelion already outside and waiting for them.
"Yes, but we better hope she's not, oh and Talwyn," Slim says, briefly stopping the Markazian, she turns around in a questioning way as Slim continues, "if you ever need anything, fell free to contact me." She nods, knowing that despite him selling illegal weaponry he's a good business man. They fully depart, hoping back into Aphelion they leave the planet with as much haste as they arrived.
When they got back to Marcadia and were walking back up the corridor to the conference room, they heard other voices coming from the room, signalling that Qwark and the others were there. "What I want to know is, how do you kill someone with a shoe?" they hear Al question as they approach, clearly they saw the news report too. Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank stride in as Helga tosses a shoe at Al to demonstrate.
Clank sees this and shakes his head, saying, "Actually, the shoes were on her feet, they are bladed," he gives a small laugh then continues, "I read the written reports on her escape."
Sasha looks to Ratchet and Talwyn as Clank talks about how Veronica escaped to Al, Qwark, Helga and Skid. "Anything on the smuggling routes? As well as location?" she asks, then adds as an afterthought, "is Veronica connected?"
Ratchet shrugs to the last question, answering her, "We don't know, our contact hopes she isn't, but we do have a location: Pokitaru."
"The smuggling routes include all three of the M class planets, but there's more traffic coming out of Terra-1 and to it than the other two," Talwyn informs further. Sasha nods, thinking on the next course of action.
Qwark overheard and decided to invite himself into the conversation, "It's an incredibly important task, Ratchet! Something I would only trust to my successor."
Ratchet decides to be a bit snarky, "Eh, cut the crap, Qwark. You didn't even have to do anything in the first place." Qwark falls silent, well, he was going to say something but Talwyn glared at him to shut up.
Ratchet spins on his heel, departing the room. "We'll be back. Maybe," he says as they leave into the corridor.
As they're walking down the corridor back to Aphelion they were stopped a few times by interns and the like, mostly asking who Talwyn was, surprised when he mentions that she's his girlfriend. After their initial shock though they congratulated him and the couple with Clank are quickly back on their way out of the building, once out they jump into Aphelion.
"Where to?" the ship asks and three conjoined voices of "Pokitaru" answer her before they realise they all said that and share in a laugh as the ship chuckles herself, jetting off into the atmosphere and to Pokitaru, the vacation planet.
They had landed on one of the lush islands that make up one of the resorts, walking along and trying to find information on Lyrebird, any rumours or sightings. Unfortunately, after four hours of asking around and coming up dry the trio decided to sit at a restaurant, getting a bite to eat as they talk about the best course of action.
Talwyn picks at her beer-battered fish fillet, clearly choosing something one might argue to be very unhealthy, especially considering the deep-fried starchy batons. Ratchet was the one that went for something healthier, a fillet of another type of fish found here with soft pink flesh and white barring. This fish was baked after being marinated in a rather nice marinade that Ratchet found himself enjoying immensely, but he too couldn't pass up the chance to have something resembling potato chips but not quite. Clank didn't need to eat so he just sat with them.
"So what do we do now?" Talwyn asks, sipping at her drink that approached a chocolate milkshake after taking a break from eating her meal.
Ratchet shrugs, taking a sip from his own drink, something not unlike soda before saying, "Hop into Aphelion and scour the islands ourselves," he stated, clearly this being their last option in finding Lyrebird.
Talwyn groans as she cuts her white fleshed deep-fried fish, eating more of it before squeezing a citrus fruit onto the rest of it. "That'll take days! And I don't think we have that kind of time," she expresses, digging into her food more and her sweet vaguely-dairy substance as she tries to think.
"Well unless someone magically knows where Lyrebird is and haven't told us, we don't have much of a choice," Ratchets says, accidentally snapping slightly, the stress beginning to weigh on him and he decides to distract himself with his food.
They stay silent for a few moments longer, Talwyn also feels some of the stress from looking for Lyrebird and isn't that upset at him snapping at her accidentally. They finish their meal, staying in silence a few moments longer, Ratchet and Clank thinking on the best course of action and Talwyn is looking at the dessert menu.
"Want dessert?" Talwyn asks suddenly, drawing Ratchet's attention out of his thoughts and to her, gathering his thoughts to reply, "Uh, sure." He reaches for a dessert menu scanning it over, deciding what to order before they wave down a waiter. While they are deciding what to order, a familiar figure approaches them, Clank turning to talk to him while Ratchet and Talwyn continue deciding. It's the Plumber.
"Oh, hello," Clank greets and he nods back in equal greeting, saying, "Say, you guys are looking for Lyrebird that has set up shop here?" at their automatic nod he continues, "for, say, six thousand bolts I'll sell the location to ya."
Ratchet shares a glance with Clank wordlessly, the Robot knowing what to do and gives the Plumber six thousand bolts in trade for the location on Lyrebird's facility, the guy walking away whistling happily.
Like the situation didn't phase Ratchet, it didn't phase Talwyn, instead she just puts down the menu and looks to Ratchet, "What's the Leviathan's Butthole?" she asks, very confused and repulsed.
Ratchet looks over at her at the question, then at the menu to find it, "Oh, that, it's just a local name, stops the tourists from wanting to order and steal tons of the stuff, it's nice, you should try it. I've had it," he says, explaining it loosely.
"Ratchet that doesn't help, what is it," she asks, trying to find the ingredient listing.
"Cocoa sponge cake with molten cocoa sauce," Clank answers, also rather vaguely as Ratchet waves a waiter down ordering two Leviathan Buttholes (much to Talwyn's slight displeasure) after doing that, they turn to Clank as he activates the infobot.
A cold, calm, snake-like feminine voice speaks over the video, "If you wish to join Lyrebird, please come on down to our training facilities at this location on Pokitaru," she says with a slight lilt to her voice, almost as if she found humour in everything. At her mentioning the location, co-ordinates appeared on screen as the video ends.
Ratchet shudders, "Whoa, that gave me chills down my spine," he comments, smoothing the fur on his tail back down.
Talwyn shivers a bit as well, accepting her food from the waiter as he sets it down, surprised that it's just a dessert very similar to lava cake. "I don't want to meet whomever that voice belongs to," she comments, picking up her fork and cutting the spongy goodness to release the sweet sauce not unlike molten fudge.
"If she voiced over the video to Lyrebird, then we may end up meeting her anyways," Clank observes while his two friends dig into their dessert, savouring it for two reasons: because it was good and because it was extremely hot.
Ratchet was the first one to finish, Talwyn not far behind, both stand up simultaneously. The Lombax turns to his girlfriend and best friend, saying, "Well, let's pay and go take down Lyrebird." Clank and Talwyn nod as they all head to the cash register to pay; after doing that they begin to make their way back to Aphelion and climbing into the ship.
"Aphelion, take us to 34.6° W, 45.7° N," Clank asks as they get comfortable, Aphelion mapping out the route when she makes an unsure noise after noticing the geography she has to fly through.
"Something wrong?" Talwyn asks, noting the unsure noise from the ship.
"Yes, the geography is quite treacherous, many sea stacks that undoubtedly would have very harsh winds. There is one path that seems to be available to us, although..." the ship trails off, knowing the thing she has to say makes things mildly difficult.
"Although?" Ratchet prompts.
"I can get you in, but I can't stay to get you out. You'll need to find your own way off and through," she finishes, beginning to lift off and carry them across the planet to that location while the trio talk amongst themselves.
"You brought your hot-wiring kit, Tal?" Ratchet asks as they soar quickly over the water, no sea stacks currently in sight.
Talwyn checks the small space behind her seat, used more for personal items, searching through it, sitting back around, "Yeah I did," she confirms. She notes Ratchet's continued lack of armour, but dismisses it, she's not wearing any either.
They begin to near some of the sea stacks, Aphelion slowing down some to be able to navigate properly even through the 'safe' path that Lyrebird uses. Soon they reach the island that had the facility on it, a rather squat compound of mostly grey and gold with touches of white and blue. All in all, looked like a pretty typical training facility.
Aphelion drops them off underneath an overhang and out of sight, they grab Talwyn's hot-wiring kit, the hacker and two Version one N60 Blasters. She takes off while they climb up, Clank safely on Ratchet's back as they step up. It's eerily quiet aside from the sounds of the birds, not a single guard in sight as the couple make their way to the door, Talwyn checking just in case it's unlocked; it wasn't so Ratchet had to use the hacker to unlock it, rushing in guns ready when they find no enemies awaiting them. They share a glance, the kind when you know you're about to get royally butt-fucked.
They continue along checking every room they came across, soon finding themselves in a large circular, well-lit room, a small stage in front of them as they walk in, there's a pathway with railings one story above them, covering the circumference of the room.
"This must be where they'd do the initiation," Talwyn observes, looking around and taking in the scene, noticing a door to the right of the stage labelled 'Do Not Enter', she taps Ratchet's arm and points to it.
He squints at in in curiosity, those are extremely heavy locks, what ever is behind that door must be incredibly strong to warrant those kinds of locks. "Huh," he states in confusion.
They had walked nearly to the middle of the room when footsteps enter from where they came, someone wearing high heels, specifically stilettos Talwyn mentally notes as she wheels around to face their attacker-to-be, the Markazian's eyes going as wide as dinner plates as Clank warns Ratchet, "Raaattcheeeet..." as he turns around, his eyes also going wide. "Oh," is all he manages.
"I had known it was only a matter of time before you came," the cold, calm, snake-like voice says, the lilt in her voice dulled and sounding more annoyed as she continues, "I had bribed them not to say anything," she pauses slightly her brown brows narrowing and her tail lashing slightly. She focuses her sultry and discomforting gaze onto Ratchet and Talwyn, forcing them into waiting painfully before she finally continues, "Of course, I didn't account for the Plumber to find that abandoned infobot, but, I have spies everywhere, so as soon as they told me you were on your way, all I had to do was evacuate the building." She stands up straighter, twitching her ear slightly, her hair down to her shoulders and wavy. Her build was athletic.
Ratchet narrows his eyes in challenge, picking up his gun, taunting her, "What? Are you going to blow this place up? Face us right here and now?"
Talwyn soon matches his challenge, throwing in a taunt herself, "Well, Veronica Buttress, make your move, before we make ours first."
Veronica Buttress the escaped Cazar and leader of Lyrebird laughs; taking Ratchet and Talwyn by surprise as she does so, clearly finding humour in their taunts. She stops laughing, straightening, she charges, using a hidden blade that swung out from the bottom of her stiletto, she slices Talwyn's hand, causing her to yelp and drop her gun, back pedalling away while the nanites healed the cut. Next, Veronica spins slightly and rams her knee – the one that was already up – straight into Ratchet's chest, staggering him and she dispatches his gun in much the same way as she did to Talwyn.
"Oh Ratchet," she says, mocking the caring voice of a mother as the couple recover from that quick ordeal as she strides towards them and continues, "I've been following your adventures since Drek, I even know about your little girlfriend," she gestures to Talwyn as she said that. The Cazar charges again, but this time, Ratchet and Talwyn were ready, blocking and dodging her strikes, returning a few of their own. If they had noticed (not even Clank did) they would have seen that she's guiding them to the door they noticed earlier, and that the locks are unlocked.
When they were almost half a metre away from the door, she does two sweeping attacks with her legs, one to break their defence and the second was a bladed strike across the collar bone on both, causing them to stagger that rest of the way into the darkened room where something woke up and was merely listening and watching the battle with a pair of slited golden eyes. It watches them stumble and fall, their nanites working to close the wounds as the door closes, the beast growls threateningly at the woman laughing, saying, "Enjoy my new pet." as the door slams shut. The room was darkened but not completely black and the black, unseen, golden eyed beast growls in a defensive manner at the two that were just thrown in by the woman it doesn't like.
Ratchet and Talwyn get up painfully, struggling slightly to see in the dark, meeting two large olden orbs, pupils narrowed to a thin slit as it growls deeply at them. They swallow, this is going to be an interesting fight.